![\"Pep](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/00246481-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nPep Guardiola is to leave Manchester City at the end of the season, the club have announced.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s Premier League game against Aston Villa will be his final match after 10 years in charge.<\/p>\n
The news comes after several days of intense speculation and signals the end of one of the most successful managerial reigns in English football history.<\/p>\n
Since his appointment in 2016, the 55-year-old has overseen 20 trophy wins, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League.<\/p>\n
In a lengthy leaving message, Guardiola said: “When I arrived, my first interview was with Noel Gallagher. I walked out thinking, ‘OK\u2026 Noel is here? This will be fun. And what a time we have had together.<\/p>\n
“Don\u2019t ask me the reasons I\u2019m leaving. There is no reason, but deep inside, I know it\u2019s my time.<\/p>\n
“Nothing is eternal, if it was, I would be here. Eternal will be the feeling, the people, the memories, the love I have for my Manchester City.”<\/p>\n
He signed off with: “Noel\u2026I was right. It has been so f****** fun. Love you all.”<\/p>\n
Guardiola\u2019s contract was due to expire in the summer of 2027 but he has reached an agreement to step down 12 months early.<\/p>\n
His former assistant Enzo Maresca, who has been out of work since leaving Chelsea in January, is the favourite to succeed him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
City pulled off a coup when they appointed Guardiola (above), widely regarded as the best coach of his generation, a decade ago.<\/p>\n
He arrived with a stellar reputation having won the Champions League twice and three LaLiga titles with Barcelona, before adding three Bundesliga crowns with Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n
His time in Manchester brought sustained domestic dominance, including three FA Cup wins and five Carabao Cups, while his other successes included the Club World Cup.<\/p>\n
Among the standout achievements of his tenure were the treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in 2023, a domestic treble in 2019 and a record-breaking 100-point league campaign in 2018.<\/p>\n
He leaves after a domestic cup double this term while hopes of a seventh title only ended in their penultimate game on Tuesday, when they drew 1-1 at Bournemouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n Guardiola will take a role as global ambassador for the City Football Group.<\/p>\n Chief executive officer Ferran Soriano said: “Pep\u2019s legacy is extraordinary and its true impact will be better assessed by Manchester City historians of the future.”<\/p>\n \n Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola is to leave Manchester City at the end of the season, the club have announced. Sunday’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-461686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}